Baby Pictures and Pure Love

I had the good fortune of being able to do some baby/family portraiture for my good friends Ralf and Lindsay over the weekend. Baby Neesa is five weeks old and apple of her parents' and grandparents' eyes. As new parents, Ralf and Lindsay are still getting used to the lack of sleep, scheduled bottle feedings, interpreting the meanings of Neesa's different cries, and all the things that the books tell you about but you never really know firsthand until you accidentally get some of that mustard-colored poo on your hand while changing a diaper. Moments like these can be trying and fleeting, BUT mostly amazing! You're holding in your arms this little person whose very being and every breath depends on you. (Ralf joked that Neesa is now running the household – I'm not sure that he knows he's in for at least 18 more years of her being in charge! On second thought, I think he does...) Part of you is resigned to the fact that she's not going to stay like that forever – they grow so fast, sometimes too fast! Without being overly maudlin or sentimental, I hope they're able to look back at these images years from now and remember those unguarded moments where the only thing that mattered was Neesa and nothing else...

The reactions have been good. There's more pictures to process, but so far I'm really happy with these images. They're a portrayal of emotion as real as it gets – not anything you can fake with contrived poses or manufacture with any amount of Photoshop trickery. :-)